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Using social media to drive event frenzy

The Purple One otherwise known as Prince made his debut on Twitter last summer. While this marked a somewhat late arrival to the social scene, the drive to promote his work with current group 3rd Eye Girl and their ‘guerrilla’ events swiftly snowballed.

Last month word of the secret gigs set to play in Manchester sent fans into a social media frenzy trying to guess the venues he might play. It resulted in the two dates selling out in seconds.

The extent of the benefits of marrying events with social media are unquestionable. The myriad of social tools and networks provide a way for brands to get closer to their audience; helping to increase awareness while driving footfall and engagement.

Whatever audience you are targeting there is an expectation that brands will have a presence online, so it’s important to incorporate social channels into your event programme.

The constant chatter about social media – particularly in the events and roadshow arena - can make it seem overwhelming. It doesn’t need to be. The key is to ignore the hype and focus on the few things that will make a difference. Here are our top tips to success:

Setting clear objectives

Social media is just another channel and shouldn’t be treated separately, but integrated in your overall communications strategy. This means ensuring that your social activity isn’t just for the sake of it, but meets your wider business objectives and event need whether that be increasing footfall, delivering interaction or sales.

The power of hashtag

One of the first steps you should take when embarking on social media for your event is creating a relevant #hashtag. Ensure it is unique and there isn’t anything that is too similar as this will be the bedrock to your audience engaging with you and vice versa, helping to raise awareness of the event and providing the means for you to evaluate post-event.

Social media on the ground

As well as helping to raise awareness, drive interest pre-event and keep the conversations going once it’s ended, social media should also be alive and well throughout your event or roadshow. Ensure sufficient technology as well as staff are in place to manage and implement live updates, monitor conversations and respond to fans.

Getting creative for maximum success

Combining a fun and dynamic social experience with education is key to success and combining it with new technology can help boost interaction and maximise impact. We worked with 20th Century Fox to raise awareness of Blu-ray through an interactive roadshow. Green screen technology helped make visitors the stars of their own movie trailer, which was delivered to their inbox. The Blu-ray message went effortlessly global when visitors shared it with friends via social media - ensuring engagement long after the event had finished.

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